SOFTWARE SAVES THE DAY BY SAVING WHAT YOU DIDN'T

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992                   TAG: 9202210180
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LARRY BLASKO ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SOFTWARE SAVES THE DAY BY SAVING WHAT YOU DIDN'T
The creative word power most often inspired by computers is the kind that most newspapers wouldn't print.
That's because the machines sometimes eat as much text as they help create. And they always wait until the worst possible moment. Only when your computer screen glows with the phrasing that's certain to win a Pulitzer will the power fail or the computer freeze.
And it will always happen just as you are about to save a copy to the disk, or just before your word processor does it automatically.
The usual way to deal with this is to swear, throw things and make a fool of yourself. But there's an alternative for $49.95 from Working Software of Santa Cruz, Calif.
Last Resort, for IBM PCs and compatibles and the Macintosh, saves keystrokes. That's different from un-erase utilities that let you revive (sometimes) a disk file you just killed. Last Resort saves files you've written on the screen but not yet saved to disk.
When you type, the letters that appear on the computer screen reflect changes in the computer's volatile memory. It's called volatile because when the electricity goes away, it does too. From time to time, most writers "save" their work to a disk. The computer copies the contents of volatile memory onto the disk, which retains data even when the electricity is off.
But only if you've remembered to save the file.
Last Resort takes care of that for you by lurking in memory and catching every keystroke. Whenever it sees you hit RETURN or ENTER with at least 20 characters in memory, or whenever there are 80 characters in memory, it tosses those characters into a disk file.
The file is a "circular file." No, not a wastebasket, but a file that, when new information runs out of unused space, it begins to overwrite the used space, oldest information first.
Last Resort allows you to specify the size of the file. Default size is 40,000 characters. That sounds like a lot until you remember that Last Resort is capturing ALL keystrokes - even the number of times you rewrite, backspace, catch a spelling error. Invest at least 100,000 characters of disk space.
If disaster does strike your text, all you need do to recover it is invoke the program and tell it to copy the contents of its circular file into an ASCII file readable by almost all word processors.
Last Resort saves alphanumeric information only. It doesn't save keystrokes that are typed in Windows applications, but it will save DOS software running in Windows.
Installation is nearly idiot-proof, and the program itself takes just 40k of disk space and 3k of memory. It is so clean, simple and intelligent a solution to a common problem that it hereby is awarded a Permanent Place On My Disk.
For information, write: Working Software Inc., P.O. Box 1844, Santa Cruz, Calif., 85061-1844. Telephone (408) 423-5696. Fax (408) 423-5699.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB